Academic Integrity
One of the biggest concerns that I have been dealing with is the issue of academic integrity. I have dealt with kids who think nothing of sharing answers and homework assignments with each other. I attribute this, in some ways, to the trend towards cooperative learning. Students think that its perfectly acceptable for a group to get together and for them all to have the same answers. Then, I talked to a number of colleagues who were facing the same thing. They and I agree that the other issue here is lack of integrity period. In this society, we have reached a point where many people (kids and adults) view the rules as applying to everybody but them. This is called situational ethics. Unfortunately, this is not going away in our culture. My question for those leaving comments is this:
In as much as you can’t change the whole culture, or what a family does, what can we do as educators and administrators to improve the eroding academic integrity of our students?
Addendum: Just viewed a news article (saw the news piece on tv) which discussed a scandal in NH regarding this subject. The town has swung the other way and are charging the kids. the kids are facing charges which could bring them prison time. Surely the answer lies somewhere beteen the nothing we have been doing and this extreme.
Article taken from CNN.com is below
nh-cheating-scandal.docnh-cheating-scandal.doc
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I understand your concern. Just this week in my Algebra I class I had a student cheat on his workbook page with another student. His comment to me was that he felt like it wouldn’t be a problem because they were learning together. (clever eh?) I along with another teacher talked to him about cheating and the consequences, not only at school by morally. He finally broke by saying he needed the good grade because his mother would “kill” him if he received a bad grade and he didn’t want to disappoint her. So in this case, where is the integrity? The child wanted to cheat so his mother wouldn’t be disappointed, but used the excuse that it was collaborative learning.
I agree with you, we need to come up with strategies to teach the children integrity, but if they don’t get this at home….wow is it hard to convince them otherwise.
I have faced this exact problem in my classroom. After giving back tests to do corrections, I have found students sharing their answers, and they think that it is okay. They do not realize that this simple sharing is cheating. Yes, it is true that we alone are not going to change society, but I think it is our job to establish within our classroom rules that are centered around integrity. This should not only apply to individual classrooms, but should become a blanket responsibility for schools in general. Like so many public figures, most people in society hold teachers and the institution of education to a higher standard, and it is time that we live up to it. Within my classroom, I make students aware that they are expected to pull their own weight, and that the “easy way” is not always the right way. It is kind of like the run-off theory; if we can teach them the value of doing their own work, those ethics may rub off on others or be carried over into other parts of society.
I agree completely with the view of situational ethics. We are definitely living in a “get mine” society where rules aren’t respected. I have to wonder, though, is the lack of integrity in the classroom growing, or are we just more tuned into it now that we are teachers? Unfortunately, cheating has always been a part of classrooms. (Of course, that doesn’t make it right, or mean it should be accepted.) As an elementary school teacher, I know that the focus is often times on “cooperative learning” however, not all learning is done in this way, and assessments aren’t either. These students knew that what they were doing wasn’t what the assignment called for, they were just excusing their attmept to cheat. I’m not sure if kids are more dishonest now than they were before, or if they are taking advantage of newer opportuniites. (I know kids I went to school with cheated, too. I was asked on several occasions to “share” my homework with those who hadn’t bothered to do it. I never felt compelled to share my hard work.) Because we weren’t taught in cooperative learning groups, those that were cheating never thought to use “learning together” as an excuse. Students cheated, students plagerized. They just used different excuses and different sources. I don’t think the behaviors have really changed (those that cheated didn’t see anything wrong with it then, either), I think their opportunities have.
History has shown that people do cheat and the acceptance of it had to begin somewhere. I think it has become a more outward behavior because the children have seen adults cheating in adult situations(on the job, at home,etc.)and they have gotten away with it. So, this generation in particular feel that if the grown folks can do it, they can too. The question was posed concerning academic integrity. First, is integrity being modeled at home? In many homes it is not a learned behavior. At the beginning of the school year I usually talk to my students about responsibility and having integrity. I create role plays of situations that illustrate what is not acceptable for completing classwork. We talk about what happens in the role plays and ways to alleviate this type of behavior. What are the consequeces for cheating in the classroom?
Integrity cannot be compartmentalized during the school day. Students model what they learn at home and from the world. Isn’t home a microcosm of society? I concur the issue is pressing for all aspects of our world, politicians, celebrities, parents, students alike.
It is evident that you have brought up a common theme that many of us face. I’ve dealt with it too, and am amazed at the shear arrogance the students show with regard to cheating. They will do it right out in the open and when you confront them about it, they act like you are crazy. I’ve also see teachers try to do something about it and then not be backed by their administration which then leads to apathy on the part of the teachers. I personally still confront them, tell them it is wrong, ask them if they think it is wrong, and refer them to the “proper authorities”.
I had no idea that the possession and display of good, moral ethics was in such a dire state. However, I, too, have seen more and more instances of cheating, especially on research-based assignments. To be quite frank, many of our students don’t know how to complete research, take notes, or cite sources. Instead of paraphrasing, they copy from the text, ver batum. As an 8th grade Language Arts teacher, I always spent at least one class period going over procedures and modeling proper note-taking techniques. I can honestly say that while this strategy didn’t completely eliminate the problem, it helped, significantly. I’d be curious to learn about strategies that have proven useful for other educators facing the same delemma.
I see we are all facing the same problems. It is also mirrored out in the real world as has been suggested here. Unfortunately, our society and its desire for instant gratification has led us toward weakening values as a culture. Take for example the parents of some of our students. They are the first to want you to enforce rules, but they are also the first to ask you to bend them and let their kid have chance after chance. I think we need to rethink our approach to education and require our kids to demonstrate accountability for their actions as they get older. After all, we are held accountable for what we do. Shouldn’t we prepare our kids for that eventuality. If not, how can we expect them to ever learn that skill. The trick is to balance our role as advocates for childrne with the need to instill social skills such as discipline and responsibility in them.
I see many of us are facing the same issue. I have to agree with the comment that was made aboutthis pervading all areas of society. After all, lately it seems as there are as many examples of low integrity in the real world as there are in our schools. People these days seem to think they can get away with anything. Lets face it…we live in the era of instant gratification and situational ethics are in vogue.
Bringing it back to the school level, we have all seen parents who want us to follow the rules when it is somebody else’s kid, but want us to bend the rules and look the other way when it is there kid. Why would kids these days think there is something called absolute wrong and right.
I believe the problem today is our lack of emphasis on accountability in our schools. While I strongly believe we need to be advocates for our students, we have swung too far towards that direction. We allow our kids to reap the rewards for their good choices but we do not let them learn the lessons that come from their mistakes. I have had parents who have argued with me about punishing their children for cheating in my class. They think they should get another chance and with a stern lecture and no other consequences they won’t do it again. I think we would all agree that unlesss the consequences cause the child to regret his actions and coreect his behavior discipline of any type is useless. Any parent could tell you that. Until we reinforce the skills of accountability with our kids we will end up crippling them when they get into the real world. That is if we adults will stop rationalizing and practice what we preach.